February 14, 2004

• Some of these comments struck me, as I read them, as being very interesting and perceptive. And then I read on... 'Given that 80% of Iraqis are about as intellectually and emotionally developed as an American 6th grader, we must be very careful in trusting the average Iraqi's "eye-witness testimony."' This is not a clear-eyed or entirely trustworthy account.
• Most Iraqis never progress beyong what we would consider a 6th grade education. They have no knowledge of physics or geometry (which explains why they can't hit 5 story buildings with mortars) and Predjudices and stereotypes that have been cultivated here for years further ruin Iraqis' ability to make decisions/ interpret facts. Comments like those - admittedly both taken from the same paragraph - worry me somewhat. How much news comes from Iraqi eye-witness accounts? I have stories by the dozens of Iraqis outright lying or grossly misinterpreting sights, sounds, and actions. Given that the media does not have to publicly cite its sources, there is no way to know the odds of a story being accurate. Thats a problem with all media, where ever its reporting from (although, obviously, attempting to verify a story published from a warzone is much more difficult than verifying eye witness accounts in London). I got this wonderful email from a 1st Lieutenant currently serving in Baghdad with the US Army, who I would prefer not to identify for reasons that will be obvious when you read his story. See? But then, this: Fox stood out most as a network that knew what it was going to put out before it even shot the footage. Other news organizations were more subtle about what they wanted to cover but pretty much everyone had their stories written before they showed up. To Al-Jazeera especially, the video footage was merely a formality. coupled with this: Despite memos and talking points every few months from the commanding general, soldiers do not and refuse to understand the role of the media in Baghdad. Most soldiers feel like media groups are out to catch them doing something wrong. are very worrying indeed. If eye witness accounts are suspect, and soldiers are wary and defensive of reporters, and the news companies have decided on the story before hand anyway, the chances of learning the truth about the situation are approaching zero (excluding some kind of Rashomon scenario, whereby everyone lying reveals the truth).
• Not wishing to derail the thread, but ploughing on regardless. Infinitely more worrying than media bias: things like this and this and this...
• Ah, dng, all those mini-911 attacks. I somtimes think that the only way they'll stop speeding up is if the organizers run out of people who are ready to commit suicide. It's the same for the Palestinians and their supporters. Do you know of anywhere that these tactics have worked to get those being attacked to change their minds?
• Dng, are you thinking what I'm thinking; that the soldier's e-mail is bogus? My bullshit detector is going off.
• lara logan on iraq reportage. worth watching, imo. (videosift, flash movie)